Last year Ridgewing received a number of inquiries from active military personnel who said that the incredible portability of the Ridgewing guitar would make it an especially good instrument to bring along in forward deployment situations. The bulk and fragility of regular guitars made them exceedingly rare there, though they were highly prized for their morale-boosting effect. This led us to do some research into the role of music in the military beyond marching bands and such. It turned out that the whole field of music therapy was created by the military, in the military, for the military during WW II to treat PTSD and depression in veterans state-side. Since then it’s extraordinary healing powers have caused it to grow into a major academic field, including offering Master’s and PhD programs. We realized that the Ridgewing guitar, because of its extraordinary flexibility and portability, might offer a unique platform for moving some of this musical healing up-stream closer to where it was needed most – just behind the front lines. As a result, we decided to make the Ridgewing “First Edition” guitar robust enough to be considered “Mil-Spec”, figuring that if it were made to survive under those conditions, it would be good enough for anyone else to start with too. Not only does the full-size Ridgewing guitar fit easily into an extremely small case like the camo case shown above, it actually doesn’t really even need a case – the various components are robust enough to simply be stuffed into one’s duffle bag along with everything else, taking up essentially no room at all. Plus the metal-tipped neck shaft makes a pretty good weapon in its own right.